{"id":30016,"date":"2022-01-09T17:45:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T23:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30016"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:48:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:48:23","slug":"root-causes-of-chronic-fatigue-part-11-your-sluggish-liver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/09\/root-causes-of-chronic-fatigue-part-11-your-sluggish-liver","title":{"rendered":"Root Causes of Chronic Fatigue, Part 11: Your Sluggish Liver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spread your left hand across your upper abdomen. Beneath it lies your liver, the largest organ in your body. Liver metabolism is so complex that the late medical essayist Lewis Thomas, MD, wrote<\/a> \u201cNothing would save me and my liver if I were in charge\u2026for I am considerably less intelligent than my liver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet until this very moment you might not have given your liver much consideration. That\u2019s because it\u2019s so good at its job that it rarely tells you that something might be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is one warning symptom that something might be amiss with your liver and that is fatigue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the common liver tests (among them ALT and AST<\/a>) are included in the metabolic profile done during routine blood tests, they often return completely normal results while deep inside your liver is behaving sluggishly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your liver has three major functions: detoxification, metabolism, and storage. Each is essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detoxification<\/span> is exactly what it sounds like. All the toxic chemicals you come in contact with–from inhaled diesel fumes and the chemicals that lace processed foods to prescription and recreational drugs, including your vodka martini, and even the Omicron variant you just inhaled–are carried into the liver\u2019s blood supply (this remarkable organ processes 1.5 quarts a minute or 25% of our cardiac output) and then deactivated, rendered harmless, and excreted. This is what happens when your liver is working correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metabolism<\/span>: At the same time that it\u2019s busy detoxifying, your liver is at work metabolizing, which is to say \u201cmaking things.\u201d It converts fat to energy, glucose to fat, and fat to phospholipids. It manufactures albumin, globulin, bile for digestion, cholesterol for sex hormones, and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storage<\/span>: <\/strong>Inside your liver are stored reserves of energy (saved as glycogen), vitamins (A, D, and B-12), and iron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sluggish liver<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The term sluggish liver is taken from Functional Medicine. I learned nothing about it in medical school. As fledgling doctors, we learned about liver diseases like hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, and liver cancers. But sluggish liver was not part of the curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You get sluggish liver by not paying attention to your health and well-being. It\u2019s caused by chronic, low-level neglect catching up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The symptoms of sluggish liver are vague and patients often see a variety of specialists who treat the symptoms but never get to the root cause. Here are the top symptoms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n